I LOST ALL TO FIND ALL
(The Joe Winterman Story)

 

Hello, my name is Joe Winterman.  I would like to share with you a little bit about my life - where I've been and where I am now, which is only by the grace of God.  It is only by His grace that I am even alive to share this with you, and I pray that as you read, if there is anything that you can personally relate to for your own life, that you won't ignore it.  You owe it to yourself to find out what this is all about, this new life I will be sharing with you about.  I pray that you will do that and that you will find the answers to life that you may be searching for.  Please read on as I share...


I grew up in a small community in northwestern Ohio in the late sixties. I had a parental covering, but was pretty much left to my own leadings which got me into the drug and rock & roll culture at an early age. I was subject to chronic migraine headaches so I received medical advice to move to a different climate after I graduated from high school. I moved to Daytona Beach, FL and tried to start life over, but my drug dependency became stronger, and at eighteen years old, I felt like I was at the end of life.

A friend had led me to the Lord and I was baptized in the Holy Spirit shortly afterwards. During this time I was in a state vocational rehabilitation program for drug abuse, and they offered to send me to school. I tried going to several of the larger Bible schools in the country but they all declined my applications, so I went to an electronic school instead. With not being able to find strong solid Christian fellowship, it wasn't long before I was back into drugs and a rock & roll band found me.  I was ejected from school and the rehabilitation program and I was at the end of myself again, when I had an interruptive thought inside me that said I should go to Ft. Lauderdale and submit myself to the men of God there.

I stayed in Ft. Lauderdale and went through deliverance from evil spirits.  I was a member of that ministry for four years, free from drugs and the influences of them, and I was under strong Biblical authority.  This was what would come to be called the "discipleship movement" with international teachers such as Derek Prince, Bob Mumford, Ern Baxter, and Don Basham.  During this time I was hired into the computer division at American Express.  When the discipleship movement split up, I moved to Phoenix, where I continued to work for American Express in the computer operations division, but I also fell into bad company, and returned to "advanced drug usage" which was buying and selling cocaine and the use of methamphetamine’s; I was able to advance in my computer career.  I took special classes through IBM and I started to pursue a childhood dream which was to work for NASA in telecommunications, so I went to college while working full time to get a degree.

It was there I met a girl that I later married due to her getting pregnant, so I quit college. American Express had advanced me into a specialty IBM operating system called TPF.  There are very few of these systems in the world, and training was hard to come by.  They sent me to a special class, and the teacher was recruiting people to go to work on a three year open ended contract at AMADEUS GMBH in Erding, Germany.  I was strong in both TPF and international telecommunications, so he recruited me to a management position in Germany.  I knew I was not right with God, so alone in a computer room, I prayed for the first time in many years.  I spoke to the Lord Jesus and told Him that I was leaving America, and I needed Him to watch my back for me, and I needed someone who was right with Him to pray for me.

The Bible says that Jesus is our high priest and that we can come to Him in faith and He will intercede for us.  It was then, that I had another interruptive thought inside me that said, "go find Gene Sullivan and have him pray for you; he stands good with me."  Gene was in the ministry that I was in at Ft. Lauderdale, and he was my next door neighbor for a short season when I first moved there in 1974.  We knew each other vaguely, but we walked in different circles, as he was in a leadership group and I was not.  I had gone to his home town in Rifle, CO in 1986 to bury my wife's grandmother and tried to look him up after not seeing him for about eight years.

Now three years later, this "voice" inside of me tells me to go find Gene, so I found another Gene Sullivan in Montrose, CO, who directed me to Gene in Grand Junction, CO.  Gene prayed for me and I was slain by the spirit of the Lord, and the drugs, and all of the activity that goes with that culture just stopped.  I moved to Germany and fulfilled my contract's obligation.  Free from drugs, free from the culture, I was perusing an international computer career that included the opening to live in other countries.  I was in Munich one day sightseeing and I went into this white cathedral that was just overwhelming in the artwork and architecture, and I had this thought which I spoke out loud to the Lord which was, “none of this means anything to you; what means something to you?"  And I heard inside an immediate response which was, "people; go invest you life in people."  I straightway contacted Gene and told him, ”I can't do this anymore. What are you doing?"  I then put in my resignation and I walked away from a sixteen year career that I had a huge investment in.  This is when I first felt His calling on my life.  I went through some hard years where I learned in the "school of the Holy Spirit" how to live by faith,” and to “take up my cross and follow Jesus" and to "lose my life to find it” and "the Kingdom of God is within you."  Since then, I have been divorced, for "how can two walk together except they agree?”  I was a partner in a business that went belly up and I went bankrupt, but through it all, I am now in ministry and walking in my calling. The Apostle Peter said, “Make your calling and election sure" and that is my work to this day.  I am alongside with Gene in the evangelical work called JUMP FOR JESUS and you can find us on WWW.JUMPFORJESUS.NET

The writer of Ecclesiastes said it like this, "Vanity of vanities all is vanity.  Hear the conclusion of the matter, that God will bring every work into judgment, whether it be good or evil.”  If you repent and believe in Jesus, as the Lord and Savior of your life, your name will be written in His book of life.

May our Lord Jesus bless you in your journey to His beginning and His completion in you!

Thank you and God bless you for taking the time to read my life story!  If you have any questions or would like to request prayer, please contact Precious Testimonies on the email link below, and they will respond to your request.

Joe Winterman


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